Aldermen for the town of Jonesborough happily approved plans to move forward with construction of a new seniors center Monday night.

Mayor Kelly Wolfe said that coming in at the proposed $2.3 million mark is “nothing short of a miracle from where we started.”

Later on in the aldermen’s comments section of the meeting, Homer G’Fellers put an emphasis on the undertaking that was getting a new seniors center in Jonesborough.

“I don’t know if people know how long of a process this has been,” G’Fellers said. He said they began the conversation about the project in the mid-1990s, and said it’s going to be something seniors can be proud of.

Wolfe read a letter from a Johnson City resident, who said because of the way the town treats its seniors, the writer does all of their shopping in Jonesborough.

In the way of water works, the mayor pushed for, and was granted approval to use, an already budgeted loan of $460,000 to repair water system damages in Zone 2. He said the repairs in Zone 1 cut back leaks in the line from a daily occurrence to a situation where there’s only been one break in the last six months.

Mike McCracken, superintendent of water distribution, received praise earlier in the meeting from the board for earning a 99 percent state water system rating.

Other approved agenda items included plans to move forward with discussion on further boundary designation for the National Storytelling Festival, two high bores for transmission lines in Zone 2 and a contract agreement with Community Development Partners LLC on a wastewater project in Phase I.

On the financial report section of the meeting, it was announced that most likely because of a cooler summer, Wetlands Water Park did not operate at the level it did the previous year, when there were hotter days.

Phil Fritts, the town’s fire chief, was honored by the mayor as the recipient of the Employee of the Month award.